1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to food processing equipment and particularly to an improved apparatus for making a plurality of selectively sized portions from a larger piece of meat.
2. Description of the Related Art
The food industry has, for many years, relied upon making several smaller pieces or portions from a larger piece of meat. Typically, this process was performed by manual cutting of the larger portion into smaller pieces. This process was very labor intensive and lacked a level of consistency in the size, shape, and weight of the smaller portions produced. In the food service or restaurant business, selective consistently sized portions have become very popular. This is particularly true as applied to poultry breast or beef products wherein smaller chunks or cube-like pieces are prepared from a larger cut of meat and a selective number of such pieces produced are sold in single servings. In view of this practice, it is highly desirable to make each piece as consistent in size and weight as possible. This creates a better customer image and provides a higher degree of control of costs relative to the weight of product sold.
Many prior attempts have been made to create an automated machine to perform the cutting and sizing functions described above. Some of these attempts have been improvements over the manual cutting process. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,364,504 to Gasbarro discloses a portion cutting apparatus that performs particularly well. However, the means incorporated by that apparatus for rotating the piece of meat being processed is known to introduce a level of inconsistency of performance. Additionally, the cutting stations of that apparatus incorporate fastening means that must be removed in a time-consuming manner to perform routine maintenance on components of the stations.
It would therefore be desirable to have a portion cutting apparatus that employs an effective, reliable means for rotating a piece of meat that is being processed. It would further be desirable to have such an apparatus that incorporates cutting stations that can be easily disassembled for maintenance.